Monday, June 11, 2007

To Add Onto The Post Below...

Sam Smith also has some thoughts on Hawes v. Noah. To which I can only reply: Uh yeah, Sam, Jo Noahis just like Mark Madsen, except that he's two inches taller. And can block shots (Season career high: 2.4 v. 0.9). And pass out of the post for assists (2.3 v. 1.1). And shoot a significantly better percentage from the FT line (73.3 v. 62.9). All while playing less minutes (25.9 v. 29.4). And being the fourth-scoring option on his team, which, incidentally, won two consecutive national championships. (Oh, and he also runs the floor better and finishes stronger at the rim.) But yeah, outside of that, they're a lot alike.

Meanwhile, the same big-man coach Sam quotes thinks that someday, three or four years down the road, Hawes might be the next Chris Kaman. Wow. How can we turn that down?

7 Comments:

Your 3rd Grade Teacher said...

I was talking to an NBA big man's coach and asked about Florida's Joakim Noah, whom the Bulls looked at Friday. "I see him as a mid- to low first-round pick," the coach said. That's not exactly where most of the mock drafts—which Noah generally scorns as uninformed—have the Florida center. The coach likened Noah to Mark Madsen, the Timberwolves reserve. And though Madsen is listed two inches shorter, they did have similar statistics in college with Madsen averaging 10.9 points and 7.9 rebounds in his Stanford career and Noah 12 points and 8.4 rebounds. "Their skill is energy," the coach said. If given the choice between Noah and Hawes, the coach said he'd want Hawes for his NBA potential. He likened Hawes to Clippers center Chris Kamen.

Aha. Well, perhaps before casting such aspersions, our kindly schoolmarm should re-read what I wrote, such as:

Meanwhile, the same big-man coach Sam quotes...

I apologize if I wasn't clear and precise enough on this point for the delicate literary sensibilities of our readers. It did seem to me, however, that Sam was quoting him approvingly--he certainly didn't question dude's opinion--and hence I felt it fair to attribute the same stupidity to him as well.

But I suppose you're right. Technically, this wasn't Sam Smith's opinion, just as technically, it wasn't Judy Miller's opinion that Saddam had WMDs. She was just quoting a "senior administration offfical," uncritically, and letting the readers decide. In sports as in politics, this is known, technically, as horseshit journalism.

Searching around for Madsen stuff, I stumbled upon his not-so-routinely updated blog, Mad Dog Blog. In a post from March, he calls Ben Howland -- the same coach who bailed on his boys from Pitt -- a "complete class act." Yikes.